Forgetting is a Sacrifice
by RealWorldWriter47
Summary: Set after 2X10 when Stefan is stuck in the tomb: Feeling that her world has crumbled after Stefan is imprisoned in the tomb, Elena turns to Damon as a last resort. She is out of answers, but for once, she allows Damon to help. One-shot.


**A/N: I was tired of not writing anything, tired of writer's block and second guessing, so I decided to post a scene that came into my head as I was watching Vampire Diaries a while ago. Set in season 2 when Stefan is stuck in the tomb with Katherine (2X10). Elena has a moment of doubt over whether Stefan will ever survive his imprisonment with Katherine and she relies on the elder Salvatore brother for a little advice...for once. My first Vampire Diaries fanfiction. Hope you enjoy! R&R**

"I want you to make me forget!" Damon Salvatore had just settled himself with a drink before the fire when he heard the quick stab of Elena's heels against his wood floor accompanied by her quaking plea. He turned his head to see her standing in the doorframe, her face the absolute picture of sadness. She was pale, and the dark circles around her eyes looked like bruises. Even though Damon knew that they were truly a mixture of running mascara and exhaustion, it alarmed him to see them there. But it was her words that scared him most. It took him a moment before he could compose an answer, and when he did it was simple.

"No, you don't." he crossed the space between them and stood in front of her. He didn't dare come too near, even though he longed to lose his lips in her hair and draw her close, heal her broken heart.

"I _need _you to." The sentence was broken up by a gasp of air, and when they were done Elena ripped at the chain around her neck until her shaking fingers finally produced the pendant that his brother had given her to protect her from…Damon. She threw it hard against the floor so that it landed with a loud crack against the wood.

"What is it you want to forget?" He asked, afraid of the answer.

"Everything." She gulped back a sob, "I don't want to remember that I love him, or that I hate him right now for what he's done, for leaving me. I don't want to remember Stefan."

She looked like she might faint, and Damon broke the carefully maintained space between them so that he could brace her shoulders. He looked deep into her eyes, almost as though he were actually going to do what she asked, but he just shook his head, "I won't, I _can't. _Your love for him can't be erased. You would be left empty. That love would have to go somewhere. It can't just disappear."

She was truly desperate, her breathing was ragged. So many tears fell from her eyes that Damon doubted she could see at all, "Then put it somewhere. Anywhere, anyone, anything."

Damon couldn't miss the irony in her words. It would be so easy to erase her memories of his brother, and insert himself into all of them. For once, he would be the good guy, he wouldn't have to work to reverse all the wrong he had done. He would have her love, and then work to have earned it. He would have her. But no, their love wouldn't be uncomplicated. His would be tainted by the knowledge of what he had done, and the guilt of what he had taken from Stefan. Hers would be superficial, vague memories, unsubstantiated feelings. He couldn't do it. It wouldn't be real.

"Elena, we will get Stefan out of that tomb, and you'll want to remember him when we do. Trust me."

"But what if that never happens? And what about Katherine? She'll poison him, brainwash him, and I'll be stuck with this hole in my heart Damon. I can't breathe!"

"Yes you can." Again Damon focused his gaze on Elena. He moved one of his hands to her face, cupping her cheek in spite of every instinct in his body telling not to. He took a deep breath and it danced across Elena's face, soft and cool. She closed her eyes against the air, letting it relax her, willing herself to bring her own ragged breath to the surface against Damon's quiet encouragements of "good"

With her eyes still clamped shut, Elena allowed herself to be lead over to the couch. She barely noticed as Damon pushed her gently to the safety of the cushions. It never once occurred to her that this was a side of the elder Salvatore brother that she had seldom seen. Damon was patient and thoughtful, he knew just what to do. She didn't even realize that for the first time since she had known him, she felt utterly safe with Damon. He was the one with the answers tonight, and she was willing to let him take the lead.

"I'm a horrible person." Elena wasn't asking for pity when she let out the exhausted reply, it was only the undeniable truth of the moment. She had doubted Stefan, even allowed herself to loath him. All the promises she had made were worthless. She had abandoned him because of what? A few hours of loneliness, of fear and hopelessness, but most of all she was horrible because a part of her still wanted to forget.

"Elena," Damon said incredulously," I'm the horrible person here. I've actually killed people, remember?"

Of course she remembered. It was what made it hard to reconcile the Damon Salvatore who she had gotten drunk with in Georgia and who played video games with her brother, with the one who had killed so many, including Jeremy. He was inconstant, but the truth was that she had never really believed he was hopeless. But none of this was about Damon. For once he had not even been a factor in the misfortunes of Mystic Falls. This was all Elena's doing, and no undoubtedly smart comment from the handsome vampire next to her was going to change what she knew to be the truth. If she were not there, if she had not entered into the lives of these people, Stefan would not be in the tomb with the psychotic undead bitch, Jeremy wouldn't have had all the heartbreak that he had to endure, Bonnie could be a carefree witch and making feathers float through the air would be the most strenuous thing she had to do. Hell, her parents might even be alive.

Damon scrutinized her, his eyebrows pulled together and a crease marring his forehead. She hadn't betrayed her thoughts on her face then, and that was good. She had already shared too much. She trusted Damon to keep her safe, but not to let her go free, and she had no idea what the future might require her to do. So, she did something that she had sworn multiple times in her life that she would never do again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him close. Her nose was buried in the familiarity of his leather jacket. She tried not to inhale the scent, to find comfort in this closeness, because then she might not be able to let go. She couldn't get attached to the man who she had so much faith in, who had so much promise, but nonetheless was no more steady then a ship tossed at sea.

Damon kept his arms high on her back, feeling each gasping inhale of breath, noticing the strength of her heart beat, the quick incessant pounding sounded loud and clear against his chest, and he was glad to hear it. She was alive, and he would keep it that way. He had promised his brother. Despite her words, her desperate terrifying words, there was a survival instinct in Elena Gilbert. Maybe it wouldn't be entirely up to him to keep that heart beating after all. He smirked into the shelter of her dark hair.

"Thank you." She whispered into his ear, her words only a little bit choked with tears.

"You're welcome" he tried to look as nonchalant as possible as they broke apart.

Elena wiped at her eyes as she stood up from the couch, allowing the world to settle and clear before she stepped toward the door. She turned back to Damon before she opened the door, looking for something to say, but there was nothing. She had said too much tonight anyway. The warmth of the library's fire had only fueled the redness of her cheeks had suffocated the chill of isolation, but the outside world was not as sympathetic to her plight. She was hit with the force of the cold before the door even swung to a close behind her, and she rushed to her car without a backward glance. But even after letting the seat warmer kick into gear her hands seemed frozen to the wheel. At home she would have to face Jeremy and her anger at him, mingled with the relief that he was alive. And then there was Jenna, maddeningly clueless. Elena didn't want to hide tonight, she didn't want to pretend, couldn't be alone with her thoughts.

For several moments she listened to the purr of her motor and her own uneven breath. She fought against the urge to go back inside, to fall deeper into the trap that Damon presented. Logically she knew that the second she got close to him he would do something to disappoint her, something that would make it impossible for Elena to even be in the same room with him, and she couldn't handle that now. Better then to have one night of angst than weeks and months of devastation. But what if this time was different? What if Damon could somehow manage to stick with her until she could be back in the safety of his brother's arms? The delusion was so tempting, too tempting ultimately. With a deep sigh, she pushed against her car door until it released her into the frigid night air. She cupped her hands and blew in to them, shuffling back up to the door as fast as her heels would allow. She let herself in.

"Damon" she called, sure that he would have heard her entrance. Within a second he was before her eyes, "I think I'll stay the night."


End file.
